School’s out for summer, but the first day of Kindergarten will be here before you know it! Fortunately, young children learn best through creative and exploratory play – play that can happen anytime, anywhere. Families can continue fostering children’s healthy development while enjoying quality time together during the summer months.
Helping Hands
Educators consistently report that strong fine motor skills – or use of the hands – are essential for success in Kindergarten. Fine motor skills allow for increasing independence, such as opening doors, zipping zippers, and brushing teeth. When combined with developing eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills also open doors to learning. Once children’s hands are strong enough, they will be able to master coloring, cutting, pasting, and holding a pencil – all of which ultimately leads to writing!
TEACHER TIP: Practice Makes Perfect
Remember that fine motor skills progress slower than gross motor skills. That’s because the delicate movements that enable children to manipulate objects, such as stacking blocks or solving a puzzle, can only be learned over time with considerable practice. In addition, the smaller muscles in the body, like those in the hands and fingers, tire more easily than the larger muscles in the arms or legs. Endurance and strength must be built up gradually before children’s dexterity will improve.
Fine motor activities are ideal for playful summertime learning! Enjoy these five engaging activities that will build children’s fine motor skills while they play, learn, grow, and get ready for Kindergarten.
1. String Together
Stringing beads & laces together is a wonderful way for children to be creative while developing their eye-hand coordination and ability to manipulate small objects. Children can make necklaces, decorations, patterns and more. You may also want to try stringing macaroni, shells, popcorn, or construction paper cut-outs. The possibilities are endless!
2. Snowflakes
It may be summer, but that doesn’t mean children can’t imagine a world full of snowflakes! Explain to children that snowflakes are special because each one is unique – just like them. It’s fast and fun to build fine motor skills with the interlocking pieces of these colorful snowflakes. Children also love making snowflakes by cutting paper designs with scissors and displaying their work on classroom or home walls. Encourage children to make as many different snowflakes as they can imagine!
3. Stamp It Out!
Children love the repetitive motion of stamping. Their high engagement makes this an ideal cross-curricular learning activity, including math and science. Foam stamps with large handles such as those in the giant weather stampers are easy for young children to grasp and facilitate the strengthening of the hand muscles. All you need is paint or ink pads and something to stamp – try cut vegetables – and watch your children be entertained as their fine motor skills grow!
4. Sponge Squeezing
This easy-to-implement activity will engage preschoolers’ minds and bodies. Set-up two separate bowls, one filled with water and the other empty. Give children a sponge and have them soak it in one bowl. Then have them squeeze the water out of the sponge into the other bowl. Children can also transfer water back and forth between bowls. This simple game will strengthen hands and forearms, cool children off during the hot summer months – and is especially fun if you add some bubbles or colorful food dye!
5. The Classic: Play Dough
Play-dough has been an established childhood favorite for decades, and there’s good reason! Not only is playing with it extremely fun for young children, but handling play-dough helps develop essential fine motor skills. Squeezing, stretching, rolling, and cutting play-dough strengthens those all-important finger muscles – the muscles that are needed to correctly hold a pencil. Prepare your soon-to-be Kindergartener writers with lots of play-dough practice!
School-to-Home: Do you have a favorite fun fine motor activity that will easily translate from your classroom to the home? Share with us in the Comments section below!